“Did you come out of the pool house? Did it ever occur to you to get the girls out of the pool and take them somewhere safe, away from the men?” Sam asked her.
“Yes. But I knew I had to wait until the men had calmed down. I assumed they were arguing about business, or whatever it was that Mr. Jamison, Liam, I mean, said he knew about the girls. So I just waited. I saw that the girls had swum to the other end of the pool; as you can see, it’s a very big pool.” She waved toward the glass doors that led out to the pool.
“I was sure they couldn’t hear the men, so I went to the kitchen, well it’s not really a full-sized kitchen, but it had a small refrigerator. Miss Tessa always had snacks for the girls in the pool house. There was a sink and a coffeemaker. I made a pot of coffee and sat at the bar. I was going to stay there, keep an eye on the girls, and as soon as the men were gone, I was going to bring them back inside and call Miss Tessa.”
“But that isn’t what happened, is it?”
More tears from Rosa. “No, it was so horrible. I can’t describe . . . when I peered out the window to check on the girls, they weren’t in the pool. I thought they’d gone back inside the house. This is what I thought because I did not see them go inside from the window of the pool house. I assumed they had all gone inside, and I was very scared. I knew that Roberto was probably waiting outside the gate for me because that’s what I told him to do when I’d called him.”
“We need to wind this up, Rosa. It’s late, and I’m sure you’re stalling. I want you to tell me what you saw when you finally decided to come out of the pool house to meet Roberto.”
There were more tears and nose-blowing from Rosa, but she knew the enormity of her situation; at least Tessa thought so. Rosa shifted her shoulders back again, then seemed determined to finish the story she should have told more than a decade ago.
“When I left the pool house, I knew that Roberto would be waiting in the front outside the gates, so I went out the side door . . . and that’s when I saw him running from the garage. And when I saw who it was, I stopped and waited. I didn’t want him to see me. I was so scared, and I knew that, well, I was not here legally. We had all come from Mexico and were just thankful to be safe. It took many, many years, but my entire family are now American citizens. I did not want to return to Mexico, with all the drug lords and killings. It is a very bad place to live. Mr. Jamison knew I was not a citizen when he hired me but assured me that he would do everything in his power to assist me and my family so that we could be here legally.”
“Rosa, I don’t care about your legal status, and Tess doesn’t either. It’s of no relevance whatsoever to the current situation. It wasn’t then, and it’s not now. Get to the point.” Sam was being hateful and didn’t seem to care.
“As I waited by the corner of the house for my brother, I saw him. He came out through the garage door, and he ran across the lawn, then through the gates. I saw Roberto, and I ran to get in the car with him. I had to leave because I did not want to get involved with the police.”
“Why would you think this argument these three men were having would involve the police?”
Rosa, who had appeared weak and frightened before this, all of a sudden seemed courageous when she spoke. “Because Mr. Joel had blood all over him when I saw him running away from the house.”
Chapter 22
“But that’s impossible!” Tessa shouted, rising from her chair and lurching toward Rosa as if she meant to do her harm. “You lying bitch! You have lost your mind! There is absolutely no way you saw my husband running from his own home, and with blood all over him.” Enraged, she turned to Sam. “Do you believe her?”
“Rosa, you have to be mistaken,” said Jill. “Mr. Jamison was later found in the pool with the girls. Maybe you imagined this? You were so frightened when you saw the . . . bodies in the pool, you were unable to handle the shock. You were traumatized by what you saw in the pool, and this account is the result of post-traumatic stress disorder.”
“No! No! Never! I know what I saw that day. I am a lot of things, but I am not a crazy woman. I did not see any bodies in the pool, not then or ever. This I swear to you on all that is holy. I only saw what I saw. When I heard the news, later, I thought that this horrible crime must have happened after I left with Robert.”
Is it possible Rosa is telling the truth? Tessa had more questions than answers and could not see how any of this would help her as regards seeing Liam brought to justice or taking her revenge on him for what he did.
“Would you be willing to submit to a polygraph?” Sam asked her.
“What is that? I do not understand the word you just used,” Rosa asked, her tone filled with skepticism.
“It’s a test that determines if you’re telling
